Time
by Blase Contradiction
Summary: He wanted to see her alive again, once more. The Time Alice was unstable and unpredictable. It's a simple wish, a desire. A wish, a desire that may very well cost him everything he love. For November Romeo. Chapter 2: The heart breaks open
1. Past: Post Mortem

Author's Note: Hey, all. This is something that spun off my mind one day and I thought, hey why not? I still don't know which I will finish first, this or Hemorrhage but I will finish it. Anyway, this is a story set off when I remembered that deleted story I wrote once (some of you remember) Carved In Ice, Carved In Time. So, this story came with a question as a I looked about people tampering with time. So, I asked myself, what if someone with an Alice tampered with time? So, I got this, and I used, naturally, the darkest character of Gakuen Alice.

Natsume Hyuuga has a wish, basically. Using that old saying, what would you give up to see the person to whom you owed a debt alive again? Would you give up the people whom you loved the most for a younger sister who didn't deserve to die? Anyway, this somewhat corrospondes with the manga but there are some elements made up so I hope you enjoy yourself. For your viewing pleasure, I introduce to you, Time. Oh, by the way, this story has three parts, so read everything carefully!

I dedicate this story to November Romeo who made me really think about everything and sprinkled my dark perceptions of the Academy with absolute rib-cracking humour!

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**Past**

**Chapter 1: Post Mortem**

_You can never plan the future by the past_.  
**-**_**Edmund Burke**_

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For November Romeo

Thank You

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The past, present and future had their own place in the flow of everything.

Nodaachi knew this very well. His gift of time travel was unpredictable, inconsistent and virtually all out useless in a hand-to-hand battle. It didn't even matter then because he was almost always absent, disappearing from the present into some random time. He would shift suddenly, without warning and disappear.

He thought it a rather ironic joke on destiny's part.

But he never stopped dreaming to see a day when he could walk into another time without collapsing the time space continuum and being able to get back without shifting to a whole other unwanted era.

Again, it was ironic in a jacked up way.

The Special Abilities class was a genre all on its own. Their powers were unpredictable and volatile, like a summer's day. Something could explode one day and disappear the next. Their powers could make a student the most powerful person on the planet or the lowest of the low.

Special Abilities Alices could get a student transferred into the Dangerous Abilities class.

But when Hyuuga Natsume came to see him, Nodaachi didn't know he was going to play a part in a play that had all the hallmarks of being very peculiar, odd, head twisting, mind reeling, heartbreaking and goddamned against the natures of time itself.

* * *

Hyuuga Natsume loathed the past.

No matter how you looked at it, his past would always be a scorch mark, a burnt piece of time he would never ever care to relieve again even if Imai Hotaru threatened to castrate him.

Which she did at a certain point but that isn't what he was thinking of right then.

Cherry blossom petals were coming around in abundance and he was, for the first time in six years, feeling like he was lost, drifting in a place where decisions were his but the resulting outcome would cause a chain reaction that might destroy everything he loved.

As much as he hated his past, his present was as precious as gold.

There was still that little piece of longing though, in his heart. Maybe he would never contemplate on what he was going to do about this had he not heard what he did in Narumi's class that day. Maybe the whole fiasco would have been avoided if he had just skipped the class like he'd originally planned in the first place.

But the lingering thoughts wouldn't go away.

And so the mayhem ensues.

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**_Present day, s__ix years later, post Alice War, Alice Academy_**

It was pure anarchy that might have sprouted the random decision of Narumi to start dressing up in the frills and ribbons that gave the impression of a messed up sewing set of a twelve year old. Sakura Mikan couldn't fathom it and she suspected that whatever was going on in his head, it was probably the scenery of little white bunnies hopping around. Whatever it was, it was absolute madness.

She stared out the window and watched as the grounds slowly rebuilt themselves with the combined efforts of hundreds of Alices. The war had taken its toll, it was undeniable. She wanted so badly to turn back the hours of pain they'd endured for so many months but it wasn't going to bring back the time they'd lost.

It wasn't going to bring back Azumi Yuka or Tonouchi Akira either.

Or Hyuuga Natsume.

Something inside Hyuuga Natsume was dying a little a day as time passed. A little pain curled out from her heart and spread out in a whorl to the rest of her. She closed her eyes as the door of the classroom creaked open.

Narumi L. Anju was surprised to see a single student sitting in the classroom, what more, Sakura Mikan. The whole class had been taken out for their PE class except, the teacher said, for one other girl student and Hyuuga Natsume. It wasn't a new thing for Hyuuga Natsume to be absent these days.

In everyone's minds, something had begun to crack in the composure of the Black Cat, something slowly incinerating to nothing. Sakura Mikan couldn't find it, neither could Nogi Ruka. It was like he simply lost the will or need to live any longer. Something was niggling at the back of his head, something she didn't think she could fix this time.

'Mikan?' the teacher said tentatively. The sixteen year old turned to face him and poured sad eyes at him. Darkness so painful and ready to pounce on the slightest sign of weakness swirled around in her heart. It was worse than anything she could have imagined as a student of the Dangerous Abilities class.

Heartbreak kills where nothing else can.

'Are you alright?' he asked, sliding into the benched desks the Academy had installed when it first opened. The slight movement of his leg, limping and almost useless seared a little into his mind but he barely registered it.

Stupid question, Narumi, he thought. Was that really the question he wanted answered at that moment? It was trivial, cavalier and plain out sharp. She smiled a little. A little. When had Sakura Mikan's smiles become so small? She shook her head and little; her voice came out a little more than a whisper.

'What happened four years ago when the walls cracked?' Small pools of tears were welling up in her eyes. Narumi sat on that school bench and basked in waning daylight with the daughter of his long lost past. And he cried with her for what had been…

…as well as for what was.

* * *

**_Past, four years later, commencement of Alice War, Alice Academy_**

Everything and nothing was connected.

The Middle School Division Principal had told him that once. Narumi Anju was unconcerned, concerned and mixed up in a sea of confusion that tossed him around like driftwood. His hand was slowly healing.

Then they attacked.

Persona had been on a reconnaissance mission with Ando Tsubasa for the past six weeks in the outer regions of the city. The AAO was quiet; too quite in the Elementary School Division Principal's opinion apparently. All missions were to be on hold until the spymaster had returned with his student.

Including that of one Sakura Mikan.

Days that seem all too average are always on the brink of absolute destruction, he would decide later. They would be so peaceful and calm, always and illusion he was assured. Then, something of a catastrophe would sneak up on them and let it all blow up in their faces.

In this case, it was the breaking of the barrier and its wall.

The Academy had fought for a year and a half by the time a small group of agents consisting of Hyuuga Natsume, Nogi Ruka, Imai Hotaru, Sakura Mikan, Tobita Yuu and Shouda Sumire managed to take away the head of the AAO's Alice with the powers of the daughter of Yuka Azumi.

In return, Sakura Mikan had spent eight months in a coma and Hyuuga Natsume was kidnapped in a last shot attempt at bringing down of the largest institutes for Alices in history. They were reunited two months after Sakura's return to the conscious world.

Something out there in the world had broken the spirit of Hyuuga Natsume, almost permanently and no one could fix it. Maybe not Sakura Mikan or Nogi Ruka even.

The casualties sustained on both sides were dire. The AAO had lost Yuka Azumi, her companion, Shiki, Mori Reo and two dozen unnamed agents.

The Academy had lost Tonouchi Akira, Persona, a few of the Dangerous Abilities students all of whom had their bodies mysteriously vanished, and Sakurano Shuichi had his left eye gouged out. All of the lost were mourned as if the world was suddenly collapsing around them.

And it was. The Alices were weak and vulnerable to physical attack. Hyuuga Natsume was missing and Sakura Mikan, in a successful effort to permanently bind and destroy the Alice of Ukihara Ibaragi, uncle to Ibaragi Nobara and head of the AAO, had been trumped into a coma not even Imai Subaru was convinced she would recover from.

Lives had been destroyed that night.

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**_Present day, s__ix years later, post Alice War, Alice Academy, Hana Hime Palace_**

Hi-sama was impatient.

Men were always late, making excuses where none were needed yet the words that spouted from their mouths were always untruths, lies and futures promised. She had lived for a number of years no one would live to name but those who had been in the ground for over a decade.

Persona was gone but the bane of her existence, or men to be exact, she would never be rid of. The worst, in her opinion as of late, was Hyuuga Natsume, the high school freshmen who had Sakura Mikan, a very powerful and potentially great – in her opinion at least; her uncle, Yukihira Kazu and Narumi, yet another man she loathed, thought Mikan lacked a little common sense – Alice.

More of an Alice than her mother, Azumi Yuka, was. Sakura had shown extraordinary strength in her own battle against the AAO when she was ten and twelve. Both times – during the Hyuuga kidnapping six years ago and the Alice War four years back – she had shown something, one thing that caught her eye.

Her utter devotion to her friendship to yet another amazing Alice, Imai Hotaru, and her apparent and dominant affection for the Academy's Black Cat, a notorious figure Hi-sama would've loved to stab. He was a hypocrite, a heartbreaker, and a crusty piece of sea wrecked cow dung, asking for a helping of knuckle sandwich, courtesy of Imai Hotaru.

Of Nogi Ruka?

Well, Hi-sama had her opinions of him but they weren't necessarily bad.

Really.

But the matter at hand was the presence of Yamada Serina, the resident clairvoyant since Otonashi Yura having moved to the Paris branch after the Alice War broke out. Her eyes were glazed over with vision, seeing things Hi-sama would never imagine. Never wanted to, in fact. Knowing the future was as much a gift as it was a curse.

The past was worse.

'Hyuuga Natsume will tamper with the Time Alice, won't he?' Hi-sama said suddenly. When the seer nodded a little, her eyes never leaving the crystal ball on the table, the woman principal smiled that little smirk she'd worn for decades. 'He never learns now will he?'

'Problem is,' the English teacher said, 'if he doesn't leave it be, it might cost him everything he knows and loves.'

The principal snorted delicately and raised her fan to sniff the rose aroma that wafted from it. 'I hardly think he deserves to keep anything he loves at the moment. He's willing to throw away anything and everything to revive that person, am I not correct?'

'Yes.'

'Exactly,' she said softly. Her woman's heart thudded with a slow rhythm, pity in her eyes for a young girl who would lose everything. 'Desire is a powerful motivator as is power. He would give everything up to save her wouldn't he?'

'What happened during his kidnapping-…' Serina-sensei began but stopped when Hi-sama held up a silencing hand. 'That, is strictly Academy need-to-know information,' the principal said. 'Why do you think Narumi was shifted to the High School Division where Yukihira-chan could keep an eye on him? I think that whatever happens to Hyuuga is none of our concern. What I _am_ concerned about is the welfare of Azumi Yuka's daughter.'

'Sakura Mikan? What does she have to do with anything?

'My dear, when it comes to the heart of Hyuuga Natsume, she is has to do with _everything_.' A thoughtful look came on to her face. 'Arrange for Nodaachi to be pulled back from the time space continuum. We are going to need him if we are going to teach Hyuuga anything.'

'Yes, Hi-sama.'

Time was turning.


	2. Past: Confessions

**Author's Note: _Many thanks to my first reviewer and those who read the first chapter. Who knows if I made any grammer/spelling mistakes here. Who knows? Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter and don't get too lost. If anything, just drop me a line, IM, email, review (much appreciated) or anything. On with the drama! _**

_**P.S. Any other genre of this story is Tragedy, Romance, Suspense, Friendship and the Tampering of time :D **_

_**Disclaimer: I want to own this, I need to own this, I wish I could own this but I can't. Credits go to Higuchi Tachibana-sensei who has a wicked sense of humour. I hope this does you honour.**_

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**Past**

**Chapter 2: Confessions**

_You can clutch the past so tightly to your chest that it leaves your arms too full to embrace the present_

_**-Jan Glidewell**_

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_**For November Romeo**_

_**Thank You**_

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_**Present day, s**__**ix years later, post Alice War, Alice Academy**_

She sat in a chair. The ceiling to floor window of Narumi's cottage was letting in the moonlight filter in like the sun. Bright as the sun yet so dark and mysterious. She sat on that chair, in front of the huge window, stared and remembered the past.

The past was a strange thing.

It could be something that would either drive you forward to the success of a lifetime or pull you down so far and so fast, you wouldn't know what hit you. The past could be forgiving or full of retribution depending on how you looked at it, how you treated it. How you lived after it.

Sakura Mikan had always been told that for a good future, the past was best forgotten. Grandpa was a man with many things to say. He had told her to forget what had happened, release all regrets, and walk towards whatever came forth. '_The future will always be a better place,_' he would say.

Try as she might, she might never let go of the scars that would mar her memory. Scars she received in the Alice War, the last days of peace she ever had. She mimicked death during her coma, unaware of the disappearance of Hyuuga Natsume. Since then, she hadn't slept a full night. No sleep for the past year and half.

She shut her eyes to blot out the memories of two years when the Alice War had reigned on. The desperate nights and days they'd survived in the ruins of the Academy; they'd been cold and in despair, wondering for thousands of times what and how it had all gone wrong. She remembered the days where hit-and-run murders were performed on students, faculty and civilians of Central Town.

People with Alices died, regardless if they were two or twenty. They all died. Every night she tried to shut them out the door they continuously banged on but they kept coming, never stopping and every time she swore she was safe, it began again.

Like another jacked up circle of Life.

_Bring them back! Bring Tonouchi-senpai and…and…my mother back! Damn, you bastard, bring them back!_

_Nothing in this world can bring back the dead, Mikan. No Alice, power, god, deity, spirit or sacrifice is going to suffice to resurrect anyone __who's crossed over. Nothing can bring them back. _

She opened her eyes and stared out at the moon. The words Ibaragi Ukihara had said to her softly struck her then. They were the words of someone who'd lost more people than she'd know and attempted to bring them back, failed. But to her, they were empty; the tone was a nothing of a man who'd killed people she's loved. She'd forgiven people but not him. Never.

Yet, it all made sense. Everyone had lost someone in the war; a friend, a brother, a sister, a teacher, a companion, a lover. Maybe nothing was ever going to bring them back and they'd mourn them forever. People who'd lived lives persecuted from the world and caged by the Academy and murdered in a war that wasn't their.

Death was an unfair player who played by the rules.

It wasn't ascribable by anything humans did to insult or provoke it. Death was death and nothing, not Alice or god, was ever going to change that. The silent scuffle of Narumi's shoes against the marble floors was barely registered as she looked out the windows and tried to remember the last few hours of consciousness before she fell into a coma that lasted for one year and more.

She realized, at that moment, she woke from a coma that lasted a year and a half and had thus far been awake for only five months. A year and eleven months had passed since the day she'd released her Alice, a blast that nearly ripped all life from her.

The tea set was set onto the table on her right. Narumi poured the chamomile tea from its teapot and into the delicate cup that made up one half of the twin tea cup that made up one fourth of the whole tea set. When she was younger – before the Alice War had disrupted any sort of happiness – Narumi used to teach her about the intracacies of a tea party. What sort of cups – _sterling silver? Jinori? Wedgewood?_ – to use, how much sugar 'one sugar' consisted of, how much milk and so on.

"Cookie?" he asked. She barely nodded and she felt the treat being pushed into her hand. She looked down at it and back up at the teacher, her father in name. "Mikan, is this about the war?"

"Would it be wrong to ask?"

"Under the circumstances, I don't know what to tell you. I don't know if you want to remember your mother, Akira or that last fight with Ukihara. But simply trying to remember what Yuka erased, it just begs the question, doesn't it?" Mikan turned her face away and tried, tried to smile. Narumi lifted his hand and gently turned her face towards him. "What senpai did, she did out of love."

"Tell me, please."

"No, it was her last wish to know that you would never remember how they died, how you nearly destroyed yourself along with Ukihara. She wanted to see you happy."

"Then she should have let me remember!" she nearly cried out. "I could then find out how Ukihara killed them without touching them. Then…then…I wouldn't feel so guilty for not saving them in the first place. I will find a way to say I'm sorry!" Tears were already coursing down her face.

Narumi let his own tear fall and listened to the young girl sobbed. "Remember what Ukihara said?"

"What? The only thing I remember of the man who killed so many? Yes, of course I remember. I'm an idiot; I don't have short term memory loss. As of late anyway."

"Nothing in this world can bring back the dead, Mikan," he whispered softly. "But in a way, they will continue living on in our memories. If we don't let them fade, I don't think they'll ever truly be gone. Think of it this way, they let themselves – the Alices who are gone – be taken away because they know only this way are they capable of protecting their friends. They were willing. So if you regret everything, what's the point, right?"

Mikan didn't answer but she didn't deny anything she said. Both of them, two who had lost someone who they barely knew, someone who had taken the appearance of an enemy to protect them and a beloved friend – Azumi Yuka and Tonouchi Akira would live on in memory. As for Sakura Mikan, no matter how she hated how true everything was, she couldn't say it wasn't right.

Because it was and nothing in the world was going to change that.

* * *

Everything needed to change.

Hyuuga Natsume had decided that two days after his kidnapping one year ago. Everyday, he woke up from nightmares that haunted him. When he was around the grounds, he was haunted by memories and the concerned faces of his friends. Night fell and he was haunted again by memories of horrific proportions. Everything had worked like clockwork for the past ten months.

In a nutshell, it was hell on earth.

Missions were – ironically – his reprieve. The empty, soulless regime of retrieving, hunting and erasing dispersed of all emotion and thought. The new leaders of the Dangerous Abilities class insisted that he and the rest of the Fourth Type Alices be restrained from using their Alices unless it was a matter of life and death. Apparently, they were next in line for sainthoods and were just waiting for a new good deed to do. It made him sick.

He watched from the roof of the High School Library as an auburn-brown head ducked itself from under the arm of Koko and Kitsuneme both of whom were telling her what he assumed was a joke. So many years had passed since the days they'd run for their lives when they were ten and during the Alice War. It was all happy and everything but he wasn't part of it.

Hadn't been for the better part of a year.

Natsume rose and turned to return to the libraries numerous archives. She would be looking for him then, judging by the bag she was holding. It was the same everyday since she woke up from her coma – no one needed to know it was gut-wrenching few months. She would find out where his newest escapade was and bring him some food, his always forgetting to eat. Sometimes the guilt was all-consuming and he felt so bad when she went away, the weight of the world reflected in those eyes. And some days, he was just plain out mad, angry that all this was happening and that no one would ever understand. Then there were times where sadness was just there, so tangible.

Dusty tomes sat on the shelves, companions to thousands of people over the decades. Natsume leaned against one of the sturdy shelves deep in the archives of past Alices and sank down to sit on the floor and just started thinking. Someone had once said that when you had a Dangerous classed ability, the last thing you wanted to be left alone with was your mind. The chances of you losing your mind was so high, you'd wake up one morning with a building destroyed – or people hurt – and yourself all strapped up in a padded room, decorated with Alice controllers like a Christmas tree.

Another person had tried to explain why the human mind was so tied to the intricacies of the Alice structure. The theory was that every aspect of what the Alice was, the very foundations of what the power was had been borne from the fragments of potency left in the brain. It was true when scientist said that about ten percent of brain power was used. Who knew? Maybe the Alice was a sort of telekinesis manifest.

In any case, the Alice was there and you were stuck with it until you were lying six feet underground.

The telltale sound of the archive doors creaked open. The world was all too sharp suddenly. The smell of mandarin oranges and strawberries wafted in, teasing and sharpening every nerve, every sensory organ. The sound of soft loafers clacked on the ground in a one, two, one, two beat. Everything; he was hearing everything, smelling everything and feeling everything.

When the auburn brown head he'd seen earlier popped tentatively between the sections containing the books from N to O, she found one Black Cat – leaning on the shelf classified as 'N', ironically – looking like someone had dropped the world on his shoulders. She brushed her fringe from her forehead and clipped it onto her head with an orange shaped hairclip.

Mikan Sakura had that ever present smile on her face. It wasn't as bright as it used to be though. Something had dimmed the sunshine that used to glow there it was missing, gone, annihilated. Hyuuga Natsume watched carefully as she moved the plastic bag in her hand forward and dropped it in his lap. He stared at it like an idiot.

'What the heck is this?' he said.

'What do you think it is genius? Poison to kill you off?' she drawled sarcastically. She'd been doing that a lot lately. It was like the sarcasm of Imai Hotaru had finally rubbed off on her. He'd have to kill her later – Imai, he meant.

'Maybe,' he said, with a completely straight face. 'I mean, if you started already haven't you? About three hours ago when you tried to stuff an elephant down my throat with the excuse of giving me breakfast.'

'Hah, like you didn't finish it all,' she retorted. 'I mean, you practically licked the plate clean. Face it, Hyuuga, you like eating.' She grinned slightly and sat down next to him, knees drawn up to her chin. Her hand reached to open the plastic bag and the purple Tupperware letting the smell of warm pasta waft through the air. 'Anna decided that you needed to eat and she needed to be nicer.'

Everyone they called their friends had been somewhat displaced since the events of the Alice War. Natsume had separated himself from them as they grieved for the comatose Mikan and because of events he wouldn't tell anyone. Walls had been made, slowly, brick by brick.

He grunted his assent and just stared at the ceiling. She made things difficult to handle. Always ten-folding the guilt and pain, always making him feel like his despair wasn't justified; that he was sulking and grieving like a child. He barely registered the movement next to him and continued to stare and ignore her.

'Natsume?' she asked. He didn't answer. 'Natsume? Natsume? NATSUME HYUUGA!'

'What the hell –?' he snapped but his sentence was cut off by a spoonful of pasta into his mouth. Mikan was smiling and holding the spoon. There it was. That genuine smile that made the hairs on his neck stand up, make his mouth go dry and his heart beat all the more faster. It seemed like a fairytale reaction, the romantic hero falling in love for the first time.

Too bad the hero was jaded and dark.

'How is it?' she asked, light shining in those eyes he'd come to know so well. 'Is it too spicy? Too much tomato or garlic?'

'You seem awful nervous about something Anna made,' he said dryly.

Her cheeks turned beet red and she looked away. 'Err, yeah, I mean, she spent a long time making it. It would be a shame if you thought it wasn't that good. Come on, she spent three hours on it; she even burnt the bloody pasta, if that was ever possible. It was blood, sweat and tears she spent a lot of effort making and – AIYAH!' She screamed as the tips of her shorn hair lit up in a burst of flames.

'Natsume!'

'Shut up, idiot.' She stuck her tongue out and settled down on the library's cool granite floors. The hours ticked by as the boy ate in silence and the young girl contemplated what to say. If the question she longed to ask slipped off her tongue, would he pull back or open his heart? _The former probably_.

The boy shut the plastic box an hour and a half later and began sauntering to the exit. 'Thanks, idiot. You didn't really have to make that.'

'Natsume, what happened when you were kidnapped?' she whispered so softly he had to strain to listen. 'I know I haven't the right to ask you anything being in a coma and all but I want, need to know. I need to understand.'

'No, you don't.'

'Why?'

'Because this time, it's a shadow you don't want to see. You don't need to see this dark and if you did…I don't think you could handle it. It's my pain to bear and I won't drag anyone into this grief. It kills, Mikan. It does.'

'How did my mother die?' Her voice was rising with every word.

'You don't need to know that.'

'Tonouchi?' It was almost hysterical. Her voice was moving up octave by octave.

'Need-to-know basis.'

'_Then what can I know? Am I going to live this life of mine with this gigantic empty hole in my memory? To never know that the mother who I was just beginning to love is dead as is one of my good friends? Am I going to continue living like everything is alright, that you are alright, like this whole life is peachy_?' she screamed. The words reverberated in the archive and shook him.

He remained looking at her with a stony face. She was breathing heavily, eyes lit with fire and looked half-crazed. Everything was falling around them, even if they didn't know it themselves. She dropped the hand she had raised and turned her face to his eyes. 'Natsume – '

'Go away, Mikan,' he said softly. Regret and sorrow was reflected in his eyes and for the first time, Mikan saw a scar in his memory he wanted so hard to forget, to lose and she was humbled. Hyuuga Natsume would carry scars inside himself for the rest of his life – scars that were uncountable and full of infection that would consume him from the inside out.

'Natsume, won't you just, -….'

'Just go away, Mikan, please.' He wasn't looking at her. Damn him, he wasn't looking at her because she would never understand. And damn him again, he was right. She wanted to break down right there and cry, cry and cry. Then the energy and anger left her tired and empty.

'Okay,' she whispered.

'I can't change anything.'

'I know,' she said. Then she smiled mockingly at the image she saw in her mind's eye. A stubborn, mourning flame caster looking away while a young nullification Alice walked away with another empty, broken part of herself; two broken souls and nothing could fix it. 'I can't help it you know – I mean the whole pushing the limit thing. I can't change who I am even if I hate it. It's not something I can make any different.'

She walked past him and opened the door slightly. 'It's stupid you know. No matter how much I fight, how much pain I have to endure to get through this big mess, I'm not getting stronger. I'm doing just the opposite. And you know, it's okay if you don't love me.' The tears were pricking the backs of her eyes. She was facing the main library now. 'It's okay if you think I don't get it even if I did. It's okay…because it doesn't hurt as much as it would have if you'd been alone, dying inside. It's okay because I know that you're doing alright and not slipping away. It's okay because I know it's just because I wasn't enough to take care of you.'

Mikan began to walk out and let the tears fall when a sudden sound stopped her for a moment. 'That's wrong.'

She turned back to look at him and smiled sadly. 'As much as you would want to say that because you care so much, because you're Hyuuga Natsume and it's your nature to care, you know you're wrong.'

And the door closed.

The night was darker than usual. It seemed brightly lit some days when there wasn't the shadow of fear and death hovering over them but that aura was constant since the Alice War. Hyuuga Natsume searched for the dim candle light that always glowed in the room beside that of Imai Hotaru.

In the years between their first encounter at ten and their current position as sixteen year olds, Sakura Mikan had clamored her way up from a low classed one star to an amazing three star. It helped that her second Alice was stronger than before. Natsume stretched his hand towards the first window ledge that protruded out and threw his weight upwards to the next ledge. The third window from the end of the building belonged to Mikan.

Inside her room, the girl shivered as the night blew in the shadowy figure of the Black Cat. The boy crept to the bed and sat next to her. Mikan looked at him silently and wrapped one end of the blanket around him. 'You'll get cold,' she whispered.

'I'm a Fire Alice, idiot,' he whispered back gently. He touched her face and let the small leakages of warmth drench her face. He closed his eyes and for the first time, brought himself forcefully back to the day when everything crumbled. 'It was about three hours after you dropped into the coma. Somebody came up behind me and smoked me with chloroform.'

He paused. 'I don't know how long I was traveling but it was long enough for me to guess Kyushu. When I woke up, I found myself in a glass cage, a room of mirrors. And in the cell opposite mine, I saw another body. I didn't know who it was, though.' His arms had begun to wrap themselves around her slender body and the silent understanding in her eyes was urging him to go where he didn't want to.

'It was a final, desperate strike; I'm guessing my kidnapping was. It was smart though. The Academy would be in shambles, the faculty and students in a mash of action seeing as how one stupid, reckless, brave and idiotic Alice decided she wanted to bind and destroy the Alice of a possible demi-god, not caring if she blew herself up in the process or give herself a brain aneurysm. No, the AAO was desperate but smart, tactical even. They wanted to brainwash me and have me fight for them seeing as how I knew most of the Academy's secrets or a lot of them, at least.

'Then, when I resisted the Alice – Jinno had given me an Alice stone for blocking Alices – they decided they'd had had enough. I was released from my chains and thrown out onto a beach, drugged.' Tears were falling down him face. Hyuuga Natsume never cried; ever. 'Turns out, the heaps of shadows in the cells opposite mine were humans.'

His voice cracked on the last word of his last sentence and Mikan recoiled in pain and shock. The only question they could ask was _why_? Why did this _all happen_? _Why Aoi_?

_I saw my sister, Hyuuga Aoi, dead on the beach next to me. _

'They told me that I was careless when I let my family go that day six years ago, when I decided to remain in the Academy. I was careless to think that my father would be able to keep running. The Academy was done with them yes, by the AAO could use them as bait, tools. The information on all Alices was received via an Alice in the opposition that could read the hidden secrets of the mind. One day, they caught a Dangerous Abilities student close to Persona and drug his mind out, removing his sanity in the process.

'They found out about the Hyuuga sister who may or may not have few fragments of an Alice of Fire left, not burnt away in the village when the Black Cat was eight. So, why not have a Fire Alice user of their own? She was connected to Academy and that made her vulnerable.' The boy looked up when he finished and met with patient olive eyes.

'I let my sister be left unprotected that day and did nothing to prevent it.'


End file.
